US Congress to act swiftly on bill on doctor pay: Boehner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican House Speaker John Boehner
said on Wednesday he expected Congress to act swiftly on
legislation to avert looming Medicare pay cuts for doctors after
he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, agreed to
the proposal.

The House of Representatives will vote on Thursday on the
legislation delaying the cuts for another year, Boehner said,
adding he expected the Senate would follow "pretty quickly."

Boehner said the short-term, 12-month "doc fix" does not
preclude any work from being done on a longer-term solution to
the recurring problem.

Hundreds of thousands of doctors who participate in
traditional Medicare face a 24 percent pay cut on April 1, a
situation dating to a 1990s initiative to restrain federal
spending on the government healthcare program, which today
serves nearly 50 million elderly and disabled people.

Doctors hoped to see a permanent fix to the Medicare
payments problem this year after Republicans and Democrats in
both chambers of Congress agreed in February on a policy to
replace the payment formula, known as the sustainable growth
rate or SGR.

But there was no agreement on how to fund the $138 billion
cost of the "doc fix" over the next decade, a serious sticking
point in the Republican-run House.

"The long term fix - those conversations have been
difficult, because there's a price tag . . . And that issue has
to be addressed," Boehner told a news conference.

"This (short-term fix) does not preclude any work from being
done on the long term fix in terms of how we pay doctors. I
frankly think the permanent fix that's being talked about is a
good fix," Boehner said.

"What there isn't agreement on, is how are we going to pay
for it."

PERMANENT FIX

Many lawmakers in both parties support the idea of finding a
permanent repair to the Medicare doctors payment system, fearing
that otherwise doctors who suffer pay cuts will be forced to
turn away patients seeking access to care under the
government-funded health care program for the elderly.

The new proposal to avoid the pay cut through next March was
introduced in the House late on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the House passed a previous version of
the "doc fix" that would have been a permanent repair, but would
have paid for it by delaying for five years the tax penalty most
Americans must pay if they decline to sign up for President
Barack Obama's landmark healthcare program.

Most House Democrats refused to endorse that approach, which
appeared to have no chance of winning Senate passage, and the
White House threatened to veto if it did.

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